Hello all...
Ive read many personal reviews about this saw, being new to woodworking I thought I would at least write alittle about how the purchase went (since i can not comparer it to any other saw to give a true performance write-up).
The purchase
I live 3 hours from the Grizzly showroom in PA so we drove and picked up the saw.
On Thursday I called to make sure they had some in stock along with getting alittle info about the size and number of boxes/creates. Customer service was fast and helpful.
Once at the showroom we looked around alittle and then went to a sales person (it was nice to walk around and not be nagged by any sales people, they said hello and all, but not like typical consumer stores, “they let you be”); before we left for the store I filled “my shopping cart” on the grizzly site and then printed it out and took that with us. Handed the printout to a sales person, he filled out a slip and we then headed to a casher. One disappointing thing was Grizzly does not offer any discount for Veterans or military personal (which we found kind of sad (not just for a discount, but since most store provide this, it seams alittle disrespectful)), but anyway, after paying for the items (bought more then just the table saw), we had to pick up a few of the items in the showroom and then the table saw itself in the warehouse a packing lot away. Everything was fast, after the casher pointed me to the in store pick-up I walked over about 50-60 foot away, I stopped to pee first and as soon as I got to the pick-up counter, my order was there. Gave them my name, signed the paper and off I went, fast and smooth (there was about 10-15 other people in the store, not counting employees). Headed to the warehouse, backed the truck up, went inside, stood at the gate for 1-2mins and a person took my info, told us to pull inside and the saw was already there. He loaded it on to the truck with a forklift, asked if we wanted to all the way against the cab, I said yes, he jumped up in the bed and shimmed it back 2-3 foot and said... wow, this thing is heavyput in the other boxes and that was that, again nice and smooth.
Assemble
Everything went smooth except for two missing screws (to bolt the switch to the machine (which I could have lost)). I'm not one for directions, but flipped through the manual which seamed to be nice and clear.
One thing which I found alittle funny, there was an orange mount holding the motor for shipping which needs to be taken off, there is a sticker on the orange bar which say... “this yellow mount must be taken off”, got alittle chuckle out of that.
Along with the saw I got a 37” roll-out table which was the toughest, the templet given for the bolt hole pattern worked well, but to mount the top of the bracket they give you a small piece of flat-stock about 1”x3” with a nut welded on one end and a bolt on the other which seams to be a good idea but the piece of 1” stock is alittle too tall and ran into a jam trying to level the rollers to the saws table. I ended up grinding alittle notch to make some more room for clearance (will take a picture over the next couple days with an update to how the saw is working.).
Applause
So far everything except for the disappointment.
Great customer service, sales, casher and warehouse personal.
Good prises
Machine seams solid
Have not done a full fine tuning for level and squareness (but will, been a CNC Machinist for the last 13 years, so it will be tight
Have not started it up yet (need to swap out a 220 plug, so gonna hit a box store tomorrow to get a plug and will update this once I cut some wood)
Disappointing
No Veterans or Military personal discount, not because im cheap (just dropped $1,950), just found it alittle disrespectful.
All and all, I will continue to give grizzly business, this is the second item I bought (first was the the G1030Z2 dust collector (which I have not “fully” used it (got it while it was still on sale), only hooked it to my 13” portable planner and it works great for that, saems like the table saw will be its second machine for now till I get “the shop” really organized, situated and the ductwork run)).
Will update this thread once I use the saw alittle and then will try and update again down the line after I really get use out of it.
Hope this will help someone make a decision in the next purchase.
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Update (12-19-2010)
Started up the saw today... wow, it was really quite and smooth. Really did not know what to expect from a saw this size being ive only used job-site table saws, was really amazed on how it ran. Saw is mounted on a shopfox dolly which all four wheels where engaged (didnt spin down the "lock studs"). Ran a couple pieces of pine through it, 1/2x6x20" Ash along with a 3x3x17" piece of hardwood from an "Indian" pallet/create which was shipped to the job i work at (dont know the type of wood yet, still doing research on it, wood is mainly whitish, with irregular black circles/veins (???) - along with some yellow and black blotches). Have some other wood from these creates which seams to be very hard, much harder then red-oak that i will run through it some time. Dont have the time right now to really play with the saw, but in time i will
Ran a couple pieces through with out hooking the dust-collector up, created a bit of a mess on the table top, then ran a few more through with the collector hooked up and it made a pretty big difference - dust did kick up on the table - plan on sealing up the cabinet with some weather stripping around the doors and maybe some duck-tape inside the cabinet where there are seams.
Tossed a square on a piece that I cross cut with the miter, seams square along with the planks being parallel (have not done any “real” checking yet, just with a metal scale and square).
Like said above, i have no prior cabinet saw experience to compare this to, but as of now, im really happy. Been around CNC and manual lathes and mills of different sizes for a long time - this saw is a nice piece of machinery in my opinion; cant wait to get some good use out of it.
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